I think this is a real marriage....Purple Hearts movie critique from a 20 year mil spouse

Hello, and welcome back to season two of the unspoken life of the military wife. I am really excited to get back into weekly episodes and am super pumped to bring you lots of new guests and topics that we haven't talked about yet. Like, uh, Tricare and finances and all kinds of other things. We're definitely gonna be hitting on.

a lot more this season, um, hot topics, things that people are asking questions about are, um, concerned about, or don't understand. So stay tuned for those. Uh, but without further ado, let's get into season two, episode one. It is all over the place. I don't know if you guys have seen it yet, but it's the Netflix movie purple hearts that was released at the end of end of July.

So here's a brief synopsis of. It's uh, based on a book of the same name by test Whitefield. So I didn't know that it was based on a book, but there you have it. Uh, young Marine, Luke  uh, and struggling diabetic singer songwriter, Cassie meet at a local dive bar and they hate each other initially, but then they decide to take advantage of the benefits of military life.

Mainly the bump in bah and medical.  and, uh, Luke is shipped off to Afghanistan on deployment, and then he gets injured by an I E D and set back home for recovery. So when Luke and Cassie initially get married, they don't expect to live or be together is how their ruse of a fake marriage is gonna work because he's being shipped off the day after they get married to Afghanistan for a year long deployment.

So they. Aren't anticipating living together. They're just gonna take this year. She gets free medical care and they get the bump in bah and then they'll go there separate ways. Um, but then, uh, Luke gets injured, um, by an IED and ends up coming home, early injured, and it forces them into living together to keep up the appearance of a real.

while he's tackling obviously PTSD and recovering, so, okay. So first off, I'm just gonna put out there that I loved it.  um, the female lead Cassie is a struggling singer songwriter and that girl can straight up sing all my words, such a beautiful voice. And I really, really like the music a lot. And the very, like one of the opening scenes of the movie.

Um, she's singing. So she's in a bar and she's the bartender at the bar, but she also sings with her band in the bar and she sings, um, Neil diamond, sweet Caroline, which is a really annoying song in my opinion. Sorry if you're a fan  and I didn't realize that that's what she was singing at first. It was such an awesome cover.

So if you're into music, highly recommend and, um, Cassie, the, the girl who played Cassie, oh gosh, this, her name's Sophie. Shoot. I can't remember her name, Sophie something, the actress she's a Disney she's B was on, um, descendants and some other things. She's a Disney kid and she's not a kid anymore. Um, and she did all of the singing, so it's all legit.

. So I loved it music, especially. Um, so there were, there were a couple of parts of the movie, or that had situations as a military spouse that really hit home for me. And one of 'em was when she goes to see Lou Falo  Nope. Luke off on deployment that gave me. All the feels, all the feels.

So if you have ever said goodbye to your significant other while they're leaving on unemployment, pretty sure you're gonna get all the feels from this. So it, I mean, it, like, it took me right back to standing on the pier, watching the ship pull away for who knows how long. Right. So  what they get right. Is they kind of cover all the bases.

Right. So if you've been through the, through a deployment, you've been on the pier as the ships pulling away or. As buses pull away, or I don't know what it looks like when other branches of service leave. Um, but you see , there's the couple that's like mad making out and  you just kind of look away embarrassed.

And then there's, you know, the kids that are crying that have to like pride off the service member's legs. That one, geez. That one would get me every time, every time. And then there's so significant others that are just. Losing their ish and pretty much hysterical. So, um, I've seen it all  and it is truly heart wrenching.

And so again, I thought that they did that part very well and I had all the feels. Um, I also really liked the back and forth while he was deployed and then kind of getting to know each other and I mean, come on who doest love a love story with happily ever after. Right. Okay. So. The bad stuff or what the critics are ripping apart.

So Luke, the young Marine, um, with an out of regulation haircut, mm-hmm, , Mary's Cassie to get a bump in bah and to help pay off a $15,000 debt that he owes. So he claims it's gonna be a $2,000 a month increase in pay.  so  I think all maybe not all, I don't know, but a lot of military people were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a tooth.

What kind of bahh are they getting? Right. So I did a little recon and the difference in bahh. So living in Oceanside, California, just like in the movie for an E one without dependent and with dependence is only $573. So that's not anywhere close to the $2,000 that he claims in the movie. But I did do. Um, even more digging into enlisted, living in barracks like Luke is in the movie.

And according to the article that I.  that, um, enlisted living in barracks only receive a fraction of standard bah. They didn't give a specific percentage. Um, so in reality, uh, it could be more of a jump than just the difference between single vice married, bah. So there's that. Um, and then  another issue is that Luke is super paranoid about anyone finding out that they have a fake marriage.

You know, every people are watching. We have to be careful, everybody they're always watching. Here's the thing , I'm here to tell you that literally no one in the military cares about some newly enlisted, Marines, personal life, unless he already's in trouble for like a thousand other things. And the fact that his dad is a retired MP means absolutely nothing.

So it's just, you know, just chill. Okay. So one of, uh, and then, okay, so one of the biggest. Issues that some people had was the derogatory language at the beginning of the movie. So one of the young Marines while everyone. Is out the night before deployment says, uh, let's go kill some Arabs, which immediately hushes the horrified crowd at the table.

Right. And, um, I read an interview with the films director and she said that she knew that that comment would cause controversy, but. Um, it was realistic and she wanted to show the growth of characters as the movie progressed. So here's the thing, um,  this movie is about young soldiers. I mean like fresh outta high school, 19 to 21 year old kids, kids.

Right. So you've you say, and you do some really stupid stuff when you're a kid, right. We all have, so I cringed right along with everyone else when he said it, but again, Sometimes people say stupid stuff, especially young kids, or, you know, they have a warp sense of the world view of the world and, you know, it's, it's just reality.

So, yeah. Uh,  one of the big themes, uh, of the movie.  is, uh, Cassie's struggle with type one diabetes. And again, in the interview that I read with the directors, she really wanted that to be an important, um, message. And theme of the movie is the struggle to maintain health and receive adequate care. So we're not gonna get into a healthcare debate here, but I think we can all agree that our medical system is very, very broken  and, um, okay.

Side note, speaking of medical care, , um, November 8th starts open enrollment here in the us, and I'm bringing a couple of, uh, Tricare experts on to talk, cuz I am not a Tricare expert, uh, to talk about the different issues that we face as military families and just navigating the military health system. So hit me up with any questions or concerns that you have.

So that I can make sure that I ask them for you because I, I think that we're pretty lucky in our family knock on wood. We're all, I'm healthy. All the we're all very healthy. So we haven't had to go through a lot of stuff. It's just like regular standard medical care. And we haven't had any big issues, but I know that they're, I, I mean, I know people that have had some major issues with Tricare.

I would be, um, I would love for you to hit me up with any of that stuff so that I can make sure that we talk about it on the show. Okay. So, uh, you get a lot of different life changes back to purple hearts. You get a lot of different life changes, uh, or challenges rather in the movie and watching the characters, you know, navigate them is.

It was I, it was an enjoyable ride for me. So, and it's, I feel like it's also a fairly realistic glimpse into the military life for those that are not directly attached to the military. So I, um, I did post on my Instagram asking for people's opinions on it, and I did get a comment from someone that they thought that it glorified being a military spouse and.

I didn't get that, but, you know, I mean, everybody is entitled to their opinion. I was trying to think about it. And, um, I don't see that, but anyways,   I would be curious if, um, what you felt,  what you thought about it. So let me know. So my verdict is essentially . Uh, my verdict is to sit back and just enjoy the love story and good music and like all good sailors who thought sat through battleship and all the pilots who sat through top gun.

Remember that? It's just a movie. They're not gonna get it right again. It's just, it's just the movie. Oh, let's talk about that for just a second. Okay. It is hilarious to watch military related movies with an active duty service member. So  Michael and I just went to see  watch. And I know we are like so far behind, but we have small kids and we don't go to the movies very often, but the girls, uh, we went this summer, um, when the girls were back at grandma's house to go see top gun Maverick.

And I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to see it in the theater because, um, It, you should see it in the theater  but it is now available to buy on Amazon. So if you haven't had a chance to see it, you can see it now from the comfort of your couch. Um, but watching I, and I knew going into it, it was gonna be, it was going to be very interesting to watch it with Michael and, um, And it's, it's so funny.

The stuff like he gets super wound, like the thing that he always notices is the uniforms they're for  they're they never seem to have the ribbons, correct. Or they're not wearing the right type of uniform or whatever, like that. I don't know why, but maybe it's his little, like type a personality, but that stuff really bothers him.

It's so funny to me because I don't think anybody else would. I have no idea what, I don't know what all the ribbons and stuff means. So it doesn't, they're in a uniform, I don't know. Um, but, uh, for those guys, and then, you know, they're when they're running stuff and combat and things like that, he's like, that's not what that looks like.

And they're looking at the radar. He's like, that's not what that looks like, you know? Just like, so it's just hilarious. So be curious to hear, um, what your. Significant others have to say about watching those. Um,  , Michael, didn't actually sit down with me to watch purple heart. Uh, but he did catch kind of bits and pieces of it as he was doing other things around the house. And the only comment that he said was the guy needs a haircut  so there you have it.  I would love to hear again.

I would love to hear your thoughts. So hit me up on Instagram at the mill spouse podcast. Thanks for listening into this first episode. And I will talk to you again soon.